Dies are used for the production of a wide range of structures. Typically, when metal matrix composite components are formed, the cavity in the die is loaded by first placing a preheated preform of reinforcing material into the cavity, closing the die and subsequently injecting liquid metal into the cavity and the preform. There are many problems associated with this process--preforms cool while being loaded into the mold and the preform material oxidizes during the transfer from a furnace to the mold, preforms are normally fragile and often break during the loading into the die cavity, and the process requires additional time and equipment to produce the preforms, preheat the preforms, and carefully load the preforms into the die cavity. It would be desirable in order to save time, reduce production problems, and reduce cost to have a method to simplify and control the process variables for the production of metal matrix composites.
The present invention provides for the production of a discontinuously reinforced preform and its injection with metal to produce a metal matrix composite component in the same die cavity. It has a plurality of ports and controls the filling of the cavity, the density of the filling, and the degassing and debindering of material in the cavity.